Winter Time – Time to explore

Winter is a great opportunity to investigate, explore, or to visit a place you always wanted to see. One of those places for me was the Tribune Tower in Chicago.
Back when we still lived in Germany, my friend told me about it and highly recommended that I visit it. Now, that I had time to investigate it, I found it to be one of the most fascinating buildings I have ever seen. There is so much meaning in every single detail.

After an international architectural competition for what – in the words of the Chicago Tribune’s legendary publisher Col. Robert R. McCormick – would be the “most beautiful office building in the world” it was built in 1925.

263 designs were sent from all over the world and entered anonymously to the competition. The winning design was a soaring Gothic skyscraper designed by the architects John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood.
They constructed the tower with 9,316 tons of steel, 13,160 tons of Indiana limestone and fireproofed it with concrete . The cost of the famous Chicago landmark totaled a whopping $8.5 million.
After it was completed, the Tower was one of the highest and most visible buildings.

The building is full of interesting details, and carries a lot of architectural significance.
Above the main entrance is the huge Aesop’s Screen, a monumental stone display that showcases a lot of stone characters from Aesop’s fables, like The Porcupine and The Snakes or The Fox and the Crow. Each of the carvings carries a special meaning.
They even craved humorous characterizations of the two architects into the Aesop’s Screen, as Robin Hood and a Howling Dog. If you want to read more about these interesting details, you can click here

But what fascinates me the most are the Stones and Artifacts that are studded on the Tower’s limestone exterior. More than 150 stones and artifacts from around the world are embedded in the outside walls. You can ‘literally reach out and touch little pieces of history.’
Publisher Col. McCormick started the tradition of collecting historical artifacts during his travels in the 1920s. The Chicago Tribune correspondents soon added to this by bringing back more artifacts whenever they came back from overseas assignments.
All the stones and artifacts are carefully selected and authenticated before they are embedded in the wall. Some of them remain in storage for several years to ensure that they prove to be historically significant. If the requirements are met, they are inserted by masons who cut its outline in the limestone and then cement it in place. Below you can see a collections of photographs I took …

Chicago Tribune Tower, built in 1925

Stone from Petra – an historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan.

Stone from the Tower of David – also known as the Jerusalem Citadel, a medieval fortress, located near the Jaffa Gate, the historical entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem, and the point where the East meets the West.

Santa Maria Island, Azores – In 1493, on his way back from his new ‘discovery,’ Christopher Columbus was forced by a storm to land on this island.

A piece from the Houses of Parliament, one of London’s most iconic landmarks.

Stones from the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, which is one of the 20th century’s most famous and distinctive buildings.

A part of the Berlin Wall which physically and ideologically divided Berlin and Germany from 1961 to 1989.

A stone from the Great Pyramid in Geza, Egypt, which is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact.

A stone from the Great Wall in China, which spans 5,000 miles.

A stone from Mt. McKinley, Alaska, the highest mountain in North America, at 20,320 feet.

An artifact from the World Trader Center (1973-2001), New York City, USA, a large complex of seven buildings, that was destroyed in 9/11.

While the exterior is stunning, I need to say the inside is also worth seeing.
A soaring entrance area known as the ‘Hall of Inscriptions’ greets everyone entering. Famous quotes about the ideals and obligations of the press are showcased on all walls, carved in stone are words from Erskine, Thomas Jefferson, Col. Robert R. McCormick, … and more.

As nothing stays the same, the Chicago Tribune will move to another, more modern building in early 2018. This will end a 93-year era in the newspaper’s namesake tower on North Michigan Avenue, the newspaper’s home since the landmark building was completed in 1925.
The new building at Prudential Plaza is just a few blocks south of Tribune Tower.
I just hope they keep one of the world’s most fascinating free outdoor historical exhibits and maintain it for the next century.

Do you have any buildings or places you want to explore? Or things you want to do? Let me know in the comment …
And, maybe now is a good time to plan an outing 😉